There is no escaping the inevitable. The “Summer Work” posters are everywhere. Turn on Days of Our Lives and you’ll swear you heard, “Like sands through the hourglass, so are the classes of this semester.”
In the classroom, looks of depravity are widespread. Without sufficient food, water or sleep, it becomes increasingly difficult to stay attentive. But why? Are we studying harder than a zombie physicist-in-training?
Likely, it’s not how much work we’re doing, but the inevitable dawdling and last minute squabbling that characterizes many of our work schedules.
Majoring in journalism taught me — besides the difference between a subject and an object — procrastination is the way to go. Or, more accurately, the way it usually goes. I have a suspicion journalism is not the only major adopting this doctrine.
Year after year, students’ apathy in the classroom has grown like a fungus. People aren’t even trying to make up excuses for not doing their work!
This column is a plea to the PlayStation-conquering sophomore who plain forgot he was enrolled in Biology, and the Internet-junky junior who sleeps on the computer labs’ blue “reclining chairs.” This is a plea to you, the easily distracted, homework-avoiding masses I so proudly call my peers.
Pick up a book and do some damn work!
College is about more than term papers and measly exams. We go to learn and expand our minds — to find ourselves and where we are going.
You could have the best professor in the world, but if you don’t come to class, or you can’t lift your head from the desk, this privilege we call education is a bust.
Conversely, it’s not always enough to be alert and ready to learn; an unprepared, lackluster teacher can ruin a class.
The University needs to do all it can to assure Temple hires, and keeps, great teachers who genuinely care about instilling knowledge. Coupled with a rekindled student diligence, the hope of an improved classroom environment can become reality.
Neal Ramirez can be reached at nramirez@temple.edu
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